The shots of the sadhus who spend their entire life with one or two arms held vertical are so fantastic, these limbs loose blood circulation and eventually muscle atrophy so much so that they cannot lower these limbs. As Barbara is now recovering from her recent shoulder operation, her movement stretches have now given way to strengthening exercises . . . she freaked at these images.

The ancient dualism between the two types of aesthetic experience are evident in the recent placement of two bronzes in the QAG ‘sculpture garden’ – namely the Apollonian and the Dionysian; a dualism between a world of the mind, of order, of regularity and polishedness and the world of intoxication, chaos, sex and ecstasy.

The small bronze figure of Apollo by the Frenchman; Charles Despian (1874–1946) has been moved from the west entrance and is positioned outside in stark contrast to the figure of the Bather#1 by the Italian; Emilio Greco (1913–1995).

The lawn has also been planted in a linear manner which is exciting as it sets up a real almost heightened experience of opposing elements, akin to another of my favorite Dutch expressionist paintings by Willem Hofhuizem; his Bather. More on his large ladies (and Apollo) – here.

One of the important commissions that surfaced in the Patron, Maker, Jewell exhibition at the Brisbane City Hall in 1997, this bracelet was the precursor for a later version completed today for our friend, collaborator and Brisbane fashion maven – Patricia Crowley. Trisha’s recycled bits and bobs in oxidised 925 Silver with 18ct Yellow Gold details, x7 symbol units all constructed to fit her ‘found’ gems, smoky quartz, sapphires and ruby, garnet and amethyst carvings with Bar & Ring clasp. All funked-up for daily exposure to the elements, we say Grrreat!

These are both companion pieces to a Large Lace Dish Brooch belonging to a private customer. We designed and made the Lace Enameled Dish connectors enabling the corals and the pearls to be inter-changable, the detail is here.

An earlier post detailed the before and after shots of the damaged dial, I enlisted four friends to assist with the recovery of this beast over the past four months and I have just completed bringing the movement to correct time. The case work had to have two elements turned (well completely remade in similar aged timber). This work was done by Allan Roberts, a machining genius who is the in-coming President of our local Chapter 104 NAWCC clock club here in Brisbane. The job then fell to me to clean and complete the assembly of the case work and finish the re-polishing with tinted waxes. The deadbeat escapement, the movement and both barrels was done by my mentor (92 year old master watchmaker), Alan Clauson who also worked with me to re-assemble the entire suspension from scratch (it was completely missing), the block, the chops and the pendulum rod to correct length. Further more, these antique cases are so flimsy and it fell to Allan Clauson to secure in the bezel and movement for me when I became so busy due to the end of the year sale preparation. I finished all the gilt metal cleaning and steel polishing, the reassemble and the fine tuning of the crutch and timing. The scan of what was left on the dial was taken into Illustrator and the vector artwork prepared, this was exported to film and Chris Fry did the silk screen work. The dial itself was cleaned to remove all the paint and the organics, the sunburst pattern was bead blasted and plated with 10 mircons of silver by another retired mate, Bob Flemming. Money can’t but this kind of dedicated work, it doesn’t pay anyone who charges by the hour (with business overheads), this is for the people with passion. Additional pics (1) and (2).

Last weekends, first full day Gem Stock sale went off really well with a small but dedicated group of studio visitors (two other jewellers amongst the group) and one internet purchase all the way from Perth, Western Australia. The ‘Lady from Texas’ requested and was sent a twelve page .pdf of the gem trays and we were delighted with her comments, unusual choices and the fact that we have another big earring commission to start. Another new studio die-hard bought Opals for her Mum, resulting in another earring commission – a huge included quartz for a door-knocker ring and a sweet trio of Pink Sapphires to be made into a fancy white & pink dress ring. Three other major gem fanciers were on hand to make sure I had remembered all my gemology . . . plus x2 pickups from the previous weekend sale at GOMA.

So now we have started another annual event, three suppliers sent consignments of diamonds, coloured high-end gemstones and opal to augment our 12 trays worth – these all return this Thursday so any one interested in gem only viewing, be quick. Footnote: the three parcels of Diamonds leave tonight!